Chicken Little wasn’t among the keynote speakers at the recent big industry pow-wow on the digital future, hosted by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), but you could have left fearing that the sky was in imminent danger of e-falling.

I’m not disputing the (voluminous) data that was presented. Nor do I doubt that e-books are going to have a dramatic impact on our book world—from how we acquire and shape content at one end of the process to the way we sell it at the other. No question, business as usual isn’t a good long-term plan, for publishers and retailers.

But I think there’s some encouragement for stores to be found somewhere between the doom and gloom of nervous chickens and the disregard of head-in-the-sand 
ostriches.

 As I listened to all the prognostications at the ECPA digital summit, I couldn’t help thinking—with apologies to whoever coined the original phrase, referencing a hammer and a nail—that when all you have is a Kindle (or a Nook or a smartphone), everything is an e-book.

And when I heard from the leading edge, early adopter-type presenters about all the people that are abandoning print wholesale in frenzied favor of digitized text (my Loosey Goosey summary), I also wondered: So, just where are all these e-folks?

Certainly not in my circles. A few friends at church have e-readers or use their smartphone to follow the Bible readings, but the others (majority) choose to follow along on the overhead screen or in their own translation. My twentysomething kids are tech savvy and like to pootle around online, but they much prefer ink-on-paper for serious reading.

An informal survey among colleagues at work was revealing, too. Bear in mind, these are people immersed in journalism and book publishing: Less than half had any kind of e-reader, few had smartphones, and they overwhelmingly preferred to read print books.

Most of those who did have e-readers said that they used them for business or travel convenience and preferred a page-in-hand for personal reading. Some said that they downloaded only free books, and many acknowledged reading more than before because of the constant accessibility of their preferred gadget.

Admittedly, my personal experience and limited research (a quick email) isn’t weighty enough to get me invited to speak at a conference. But it is shared by a good number of those I have chatted with in the industry who hear the red sky warnings but don’t see many actual signs as they look around. And I don’t believe that it is because they are naïve, uninformed or stubborn.

Here’s my conclusion about e-books and Christian retailing: Some customers will never go digital and some will. Brilliant, I know. Let me unpack that a bit.

Some customers will never go digital. This doesn’t make them backwards or backwoods—and they still need serving. So, while you may want to make adjustments (for instance, fiction is seen to be more attractive to e-readers than other categories), don’t abandon the book section prematurely.

I agree with those who have observed that the reflective and personal nature of much Christian reading can have a physical, touch-the-pages and write-in-the-margins aspect to it that devices cannot replicate (something that may be especially true when it comes to Bibles, as an article elsewhere in this issue notes). Then there’s the fact that, many times, Christian books are bought as a gift or ministry touch, which cries out for physical product.

Also, the preference for print over digital seems to cut across demographics, interestingly enough: there’s been research that found e-reader ownership higher among older adults (because they can afford the devices and like being able to enlarge the print) than their iPod-bearing offspring. So don’t bail on trying to serve younger adults too soon, either.

Some customers will go digital—but this doesn’t mean you have to wave them goodbye forever, shut the doors and put up the For Sale sign. Many e-reader users will appreciate the convenience of their device and the opportunities it affords them to explore new authors cheaply (or for free), but will likely continue default to print for significant reading.

With these people, e-books are more of an opportunity than something to be feared. Digital titles could, in some way, become a great advertisement for your store—if you are providing the experience and customer service that will bring you to mind (and, hence, them to you) when they consider making a physical purchase.

In part, this is why it is so important that Christian stores provide an option for selling e-books. I am not so much convinced that it will necessarily be a big slice of income, but providing the opportunity says that Christian stores are aware of and embrace the new world of digital publishing and may help counter the view in some parts that they are outdated and out of touch with contemporary culture.

And, yes, there will be some customers who will go entirely digital. But they and their friends and family still have holidays and homes and heartaches for which gifts and giclee and gentle words in a physical card or book are desired.

So, there’s my thoughts: The horizon may be shifting, but the sky isn’t falling just yet. A Henny Penny for yours?

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